This site is composed by an Iberian settlement and a three sector necropolis.

The settlement

This settlement was established between the VIth century BC and the 1st of our era, when abandoned. Occupies a place that was not chosen by chance, but because from the highest point of the village you can see most of the Terra Alta. This tower is built with dry stone, has a maximum height of 8.6 meters and was part of the defensive structure of the settlement, along with a perimeter wall. Its elliptical shape makes it unique, as it only have been found similar in some harbours of the Mediterranean such as the eastern part of the island of Sicily. However, the town has some features similar to close towns such as "San Antonio de Calaceite", Batea's "Tossal del Moro de Pinyeres" and Benicarlo's "Puig de la Nau". The settlement of Gandesa covered an area of 3300 square meters, and became the largest of its environment.


The excavations confirmed the settlement as one of the most important Iberian sites in Catalonia. Specifically, they discovered three rooms in which there was, for over 2000 years, a linen workshop. In one bedroom there are two rectangular water-proof deposits made of clay where they found remains of linen mash which was obtained by the fiber weave. On the site were also found 107 pieces of weavers, such as counterweights used in the rudimentary equipment of the time. In the second room were discovered remains of large ceramic vessels, which might indicate the possibility that was used as a warehouse. The third is a round fireplace that takes up almost the whole room.


These remains, along with Greek and Phoenician pottery, confirm that the first inhabitants of Coll del Moro were mostly like the neighboring communities of the nearest settlements, which we call today "ilercavones".

The necropolis sectors

The 3 sections of the cemeteries are located on the north side of the road and cover a ground extension of 1km approx. From east to west the different areas will occur in the following order: Calar, Camp Teuler and Maries. Calar sector, where there is a monolith commemorating the Battle of the Ebro, occupies an area of about 48 m long and 16 meters wide, with an area of 786 square meters and 20 funerary structures. At about 14 meters from there is the Camp Teuler area, with a length of 80 meters and a width of 24 meters, an area of 1,920 square meters and 60 funerary structures. Maries is at 500 meters, but for this sector we still don't know the exact extension, although it can exceed 3,500 square meters, 49 structures have been found so far.


The necropolis allows us to know which were the funeral rites of indigenous communities through the burning mounds. The mounds are square and circular structures of stone that covered the ground and identified by a funerary stone, kept the ceramic urns in which were the ashes and the belongings of the buried person.


From the observation of this necropolis we can infer hierarchies in preiberian society, as there are several types of burial mounds. While everyone is individual, there are different sizes, ones having a diameter of 3 meters and about 2 meters high and others than, despite having the same height, are just a half meter in diameter. These differences give credit to the hypothesis that more than 2500 years ago different social strata existed. People with more power, such as the village chief or the shaman, occupy the largest burial mounds, which could have become over time in tombs significant to all people.